Policies toward North Korea: A time for new thinking

Abstract

It is a commonplace among students of Northeast Asian security issues to regard North Korea as a rogue state, one which operates outside the norms of global society and which presents an ever-present threat to regional security. In this article, however, the authors present an unorthodox line of analysis which attempts to see North Korea as it sees itself: a state whose external support system rapidly and traumatically disappeared a decade ago; a state confronted by hostile neighbors who wish to undermine its regime and who are heavily armed for possible military actions against it; and a state whose limited ability to participate in the global economy is confined to selling abroad for hard currency the few things that it does well: military equipment, including missile technology. Thus viewed, the authors find wanting the policies pursued towards North Korea by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and China. They stipulate a series of precise policy shifts that these four states must undertake to encourage North Korea to play a more active and positive role in building a durable framework for Northeast Asian regional security.